Archive for May 15th, 2009

Yeah, just how much blood does Mo Green and the county school system want out of Northern Guilford? The principal has resigned. He was very popular at the school, as well as the athletic director, the teams that are not in season have been held up from workouts because they can’t have a coach there. State championship men’s basketball team has to postpone their end-of-the-year banquet. And this investigation continues, continues, continues. There is something in the News & Record almost daily. When is this fiasco going to end? Page has illegal or ineligible players declared. Their principal was not forced to resign. Their athletic director was not forced to resign. And that’s admitted. It’s an investigation …

I’m always glad when it’s not just me. I talked to a friend of mine who’s even more wise and skeptical and he says the smell’s coming from Northern Guilford, not Eugene Street. That very well could be the case. I’m just concerned that Mo Green and Co. have acted hastily with Northern before they the know the extent of the problem system-wide. And when bureaucrats make hasty personnel decisions, it often gets them in legal trouble. Just think back to when a certain city manager locked a certain police chief out of his office before he knew all the facts.

The N&R praises Guilford County Schools Superintendent Mo Green for his handling of the Northern Guilford High School investigation, which resulted in the school being stripped of its state basketball title:

For too long, school districts have either turned a blind eye to such shenanigans or openly condoned them. Similar violations were rampant in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg system when Green was there. To his credit, he has acted forcefully in addressing the problem both there and here.

Some Northern parents and students say they were poorly informed about a probe that lingered way too long. Green has moved to blunt such criticism in the future by proposing public meetings to address residency policies. That should help.

Problem is Northern parents don’t seem to be getting many answers from Green at his public meetings, at least as far as we can tell from the N&R’s reporting of last night’s meeting. The money quote came not from Green, but school system attorney Jill Wilson:

Wilson likened the investigation to, of all things, a carnival game.

“Have you ever played the game Whack-a-Mole?” she asked. “That’s what this is. Every day a new school pops up. I could give you a list of schools tonight and it would change by the next day.”

Complicating matters, however, is the N&R’s analysis of “heavily redacted” e-mails released by GCS that offer “little, if any, evidence of recruiting.”

Remember again that charges of recruiting were what sparked the Northern Guilford investigation. I don’t disagree with the N&R editorial stating that “high schools should play within the rules or face the consequences.” But the bottom line is Northern Guilford has been found guilty — so far — of only using ineleigible players, and they’ve suffrered the consequences. Concrete evidence of recruiting, which has cost people their jobs, hasn’t appeared so far. Green says the system is investigating other schools as a result of the Northern Guilford situation. If those schools are found guilty of using ineligible players, will more people lose their jobs? I would think so, based on what’s gone down so far.